Bob Marshall answers questions about fishing and the Gulf of Mexico oil spill

Eliot Kamenitz/The Times-PicayuneFishing boats loaded with oil booms sail out of Hopedale on Sunday as efforts by workers continue to protect marsh and waterways from oil leaking from BP well in the Gulf of Mexico.As the BP oil mugging of our coast moves through its third week readers have questions and I have . . . . well, I have some answers that were accurate when I wrote this Thursday afternoon.

Keeping pace isn't easy. The situation is more fluid than those ugly oil slicks that have begun washing into our estuaries. An area might be closed to fishing in the morning, then opened by noon - and vice versa.

But as we round the mid-point of May the huge army of anglers in metro New Orleans are getting anxious. Their imaginations and vacation-planning reflexes have been trained by tradition to prepare for fishing by June 1.

So I'll try to answer the most frequent queries.

First, the update:

In its 24 days BP's mistake has poured about 5.1 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico 50 miles south of the Mississippi River delta at the rate of 210,000 gallons per day. The company is drilling a relief well it hopes will make contact with the existing well in two to 2 1/2 months, meanwhile trying - and failing - to use different ideas to stop the flow at the surface break.

Q: What inshore/coastline areas are closed and which are open to fishing?

East of the Mississippi River the closed area includes all coastal sounds, barrier islands and the marshes between the east bank of the river and the eastern and southern shorelines of Lake Borgne from Malheureaux Point to the east banks of Bayou Bienvenue. If you fish out of Delacroix, Reggio, Hopedale, Shell Beach or Pointe a la Hache, your immediate fishing marshes are closed.

The open areas include all of the interior of Lake Borgne, including those rigs and wellheads west of Mississippi Sound; all of lakes St. Catherine, Borgne and Maurepas, and all their associated marshes, shorelines and passes.

West of the river, the closed interior area includes all the marshes from the Empire jetties east to the mouth the river.

The open interior fishing areas west of the river include all the interior marshes between the west side of the Empire jetties to Bell Pass at the mouth of Bayou Laforuce. This includes all those open bays and marshes south of Port Sulphur, Myrtle Grove, and the entire Barataria Bay system fished from Lafitte and Grand Isle.

The state's "territorial waters" - the area from the beach south three miles to federal waters - are open from the Empire jetties west to Bell Pass.

West of Fourchon the picture gets trickier. The state territorial waters are closed as well as interior marshes from the beach roughly 10 miles north into Timbalier and Terrebonne bays. The boundaries are from Bell Pass on the east to Pointe au Fer on the west and north to latitude 29 13 12.

Q: Can I fish offshore?

A: Yes, inside any of the state territorial waters that are open, and outside the federal closures. Lately those have been as far south as 70 miles. Check that LDWF Web site for the latest.

Q: Were these areas closed because they were polluted - and why do they keep changing?

A: The areas were closed by the departments of Health and Hospitals, Environmental Quality and the DWF to prevent contaminated seafood from reaching markets or the tables of sports fishers. Through Thursday constant sampling of seafood and water by those agencies had yet to turn up any contamination. However, because lab results require five days for results, the agencies said caution required closing the areas any time they were under imminent threat of exposure to the spill. If fishing were ongoing and samples showed contamination, that could mean four to five days of polluted seafood already was being consumed.

Q: Can I fish in the closed areas if I'm just doing catch-and-release?

A: No. The LDWF said the closure includes catch-and-release. Further, it recommends anglers not even take boating trips in closed areas to reduce the chance of exposure to harmful oil components.

Q: Are these oil slicks harmful to my fishing equipment, including boat and motor?

A: They can be. Boat mechanics say any water-cooled motors can be damaged on a slick because the impeller blades in the intake system can clog, blocking the cooling system. Crude oil can stain the finish on some boats, although in most cases they can be scrubbed clean with industry-approved cleansers and polishers. Fishing tackle, especially lines, can be damaged by the corrosive components of some crude oils.

But most important, human health is at risk by many of the chemicals in crude oil, from the light sheens to the thicker matts, so the prudent policy is to stay out of the oil.

Q: Is the spill hurting spawning seasons?

A: They could, although there is no evidence so far. Trout and other fishes are spawning, as are oysters. If eggs, fry or larvae contact even light sheen, they can be killed by the toxins, or weighted down and fall to the bottom.

Q: Why is the state opening diversions, and how will that effect fishing?

A: State agencies say they have increased volume and opened some closed structures with the hope the flood of freshwater will help minimize the impacts of any oil that comes into the shallow estuaries. It looks like they're following the old formula that "dilution is the solution to pollution."

This isn't a great time to reduce salinities in some areas. Specks have begun spawning, as have oysters. Too much freshwater is not good for either activity. Fish can swim to new locations, oysters can't. But if coastal restoration plans move ahead as hoped, more fresh water and sediments will be pouring into these areas anyway.

The DWF said the total increased volume comes to 29,550 cubic feet per second. The locations and flows are:

Officials are also considering using the Bohemia Spillway in Nairn to send river water into the wetlands.

Q: When will this end?

A: The surest bet is the relief well being drilled, which is estimated to take 2 to 2 1/2 months to complete. But BP could get lucky in any of the other concurrent efforts under way, and the flow could be stopped or dramatically reduced within a week.

However, even if the flow were stopped tomorrow, it would takes weeks for the spill to finally dissipate, and years before researchers know the ultimate impact on our estuaries.